Mitt Romney, Anti-Gay Bully

David Badash at the New Civil Rights Movement tipped me off to a disturbing story in the Washington Post this morning about Mitt Romney’s high school days at an elite college preparatory school in Michigan (Trigger warning for anti-gay bullying):

Mitt Romney. . . spotted something he thought did not belong at a school where the boys wore ties and carried briefcases. John Lauber, a soft-spoken new student one year behind Romney, was perpetually teased for his nonconformity and presumed homosexuality. Now he was walking around the all-boys school with bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye, and Romney wasn’t having it.

“He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend in the Stevens Hall dorm, according to Friedemann’s recollection. Mitt, the teenaged son of Michigan Gov. George Romney, kept complaining about Lauber’s look, Friedemann recalled.

A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber’s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors.

For me — and I’d venture to guess I’m not the only one — the above account of Mitt Romney attacking John Lauber brings back painful memories of the anti-gay bullying I endured when I was in school. My stomach tightened into knots as I read it. Perhaps, though, it was an isolated incident — right? Wrong.

In an English class, Gary Hummel, who was a closeted gay student at the time, recalled that his efforts to speak out in class were punctuated with Romney shouting, “Atta girl!” In the culture of that time and place, that was not entirely out of the norm. Hummel recalled some teachers using similar language.

According to Romney and his campaign, the candidate has no recollection of either incident. But Hummel never forgot the way Mitt Romney teased him for his failure to conform to the gender and sexuality norms of the time. And neither did John Lauber — one of his former bullies, David Seed, ran into Lauber in an airport in the mid-1990s and approached him, apologizing for his role in what happened all those years ago. Lauber told him that the attack was “horrible” and recounted how frightened he felt as it took place, then acknowledged, “It’s something I have thought about a lot since then.” We’ll never know whether those scars ever fully healed for John Lauber — he died in 2004.

The Post‘s Jason Horowitz spoke to five of Romney’s prep school classmates about the Lauber incident. All of them gave similar accounts, completely independently of each other. And, like Seed, all of them feel terrible about it, even decades later. Friedemann noted that the school never punished Romney for what happened and expressed regret that he failed to intercede to stop it. He said that Romney targeted Lauber because “he was just easy pickins.” Phillip Maxwell, a childhood friend of Mitt Romney’s and a witness to Lauber’s attack, called it “vicious” and a “hack job.” And Thomas Buford, who admits to having helped Romney hold Lauber down as the governor’s son cut his hair, later apologized to the “terrified” man and described the attack as “. . . a senseless, stupid, idiotic thing to do.”

As for Mitt Romney himself, the most he could muster was a qualified apology — not for anti-gay bullying, but for unnamed high school “hijinks and pranks.” He declined to comment on the accuracy of his former classmates’ allegations, although he did offer a sort of half-hearted, ho-hum defense, telling FOX radio host Brian Kilmeade that “I certainly don’t believe that I thought the fellow was homosexual. That was the furthest thing from our minds back in the 1960s.” So to hear Mitt Romney tell it, while his memory is completely blank with regard to that specific gay-bashing incident, he does know with absolute certainty that the attack — which again, according to him, may or may not have even happened — was in no way motivated by John Lauber’s real or perceived sexual orientation. It couldn’t possibly have been — after all, Mitt’s mind was completely unsullied by icky things like homosexuality in those halcyon days. Right.

This story disturbs me on a level that goes far deeper than the political. In fact, it isn’t political at all. I find it troubling for the same reason that I was so bothered by the now-infamous story about Romney driving to Canada with a crated Irish setter strapped to the roof of his car: you can tell a lot about the content of a person’s character by how he or she treats the vulnerable. In the case of Seamus the dog, Romney a.) thought, unbelievably, that it was appropriate and/or humane to strap a dog to the roof of a moving vehicle and b.) was so wedded to his rigid itinerary of predetermined rest stops that he sprayed the dog down with a hose in a gas station parking lot after the understandably terrified canine wet itself at an inconvenient time. In the case of Gary Hummel, Romney had no compunction about publicly humiliating a closeted gay man. And then there’s John Lauber. The attack he endured scarred him for the remainder of his life and haunts its participants nearly half a century later, but Romney? You know, the “prankster” who pinned a gay man down and came at him with scissors as he screamed for help because he didn’t like the way he styled his hair? He claims not to remember that it even happened at all.

Horowitz notes that the Romney presidential campaign has taken to citing the candidate’s youthful antics as a way to counteract the public’s perception of him as wooden, detached, and aloof. Romney’s wife, Ann — whom he met while in prep school — recently said of her husband that “there’s a wild and crazy man inside of there just waiting to come out.” I, for one, hope it doesn’t. With these disturbing accounts of anti-gay bullying on the part of Mitt Romney and his seemingly indifferent response, I’ve already seen more of that wild and crazy man than I ever wanted to.

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24 Comments

Bose in St Peter MNMay 10, 2012 at 5:04 pm -

It’s relevant that Mitt appears to have been 18 when this happened. Mitt was born 3/12/47, and it occurred on return from Spring Break in 1965. Even if the break ended shortly before his BD, the point remains that he wasn’t just breaking into adolescence, he was a young man.

And because of the regimented nature of the institution, it’s also relevant that he was at the peak of his personal privilege and power within the student body, a senior graduating within a couple of months.

TPM’s got some great reporting on Romney’s feuds with the MA state LGBT youth commission while governor.

Benjamin J. DouthettMay 10, 2012 at 7:14 pm -

After hearing about this, combined with the Seamus incident (and his refusal to admit he was in the wrong), there’s only one conclusion I can make: Mitt Romney is a sociopath.

BuffyMay 10, 2012 at 8:31 pm -

No surprise. It’s not like he became a sociopath overnight.

Elizabeth MoffetMay 11, 2012 at 1:50 am -

It is amazing that “no one” has chosen to discuss the admission of Pres. Obama’s bullying of a “girl” in college;infact, he physically assaulted her. His admittance to choose to drink heavily, use & purchase cocaine/”other drugs” as well as not attend class and intentionally behave unacceptably is just one of those things that happened. We are not even priviledged to his how this impacted his transcripts. Oh, I forgot, I am sure this will not be displayed because it is a fact that the media “chooses” what it wants it’s readers to hear and believe!

Evan HurstMay 11, 2012 at 3:22 am -

Citations, Elizabeth, or are you just typing?

Please. The next person in the Adult Daycare where you live is ready to use the computer now. Time’s up, Eliz.

Evan HurstMay 11, 2012 at 3:23 am -

Also, your use of quotation marks around the words “no one” is highly incorrect.

Ann JMay 11, 2012 at 11:31 am -

Evan Hurst,

I find it surprising that you would choose to write something like that in response to Elizabeth on an Anti-Bullying article. The point here is that bullying is never okay. Not when it’s toward gay people, not even when it’s toward people who don’t use citations and quotation marks properly.

I urge you to think before you sling hurtful comments.

sueMay 11, 2012 at 12:11 pm -

Elizabeth – Need facts. Just because you write it, doesn’t mean its true. Share your facts of Obama “bullying” and physical assault and he admitting “drinking heavily” (example of acceptable use of quotation). I love how Obama admission of using cocaine turns into purchasing the cocaine, drinking turns into heavy drinking, and Mitt bullying isn’t as bad if one says Obama assaulted a female. This is why internet access should not be accessible to all. @@

Five witnesses to the incident and he can’t for the life of him remember. So now the ghost of John Lauber haunts Willard and his jinxed campaign… What a dybbuk! (Dybbuk: the soul of a dead person that enters and takes control of the body of a living person.) Will wonders never cease?

Sharon YeatesMay 11, 2012 at 1:11 pm -

Elizabeth is reporting on off the many false-rumors that have been circulated as fact.

The truth is, in his own Memoirs, President Obama described an event in his childhood that bothered him greatly. A young girl at his school was not popular. As bullies do, the crowd decided to harrass both Obama and the girl by making accusations that they were in love with each other. Obama denied it. The group surrounded them, shouting that Obama was her boyfriend. He shouted that he was not, then he shoved her away from him. She did not fall down. He did not harrass her. That was the extent of the incident. Obama felt badly about it for years afterward.

This is VERY different from grabbing scissors, forming a lynch mob, tracking a man down, tackling him, holding him down as he screamed for help, and sheering him like a sheep.

The reactions of the two men are very different. Prior to becoming a presidential candidate, prior to ANYONE reporting the incident, Obama wrote of the memory as a shameful period of his life that he regrets. Romney calls his event “a prank”.

TomMay 11, 2012 at 3:22 pm -

As an independent, I probably would have given Obama another shot, even if I think he’s only done so-so. I might have switched at the last second, who knows.

But now Romney can forget about it as far as I’m concerned. The only way I vote for him is if he gets up and says “yea, I was an a**h*le and a complete d*ck. My name is Mitt Romney and I did this. And I’m sorry.” If it’s sincere and I buy it, maybe I’ll give him a shot. And if anyone asks me, I’ll try to persuade them not to vote for him. I HATE guys who are like this, I don’t care how much public service they do.

JillMay 11, 2012 at 5:06 pm -

Another story based in lies. The liberal press can spread any lie and have the sheeple follow. How convenient that John Lauber is no longer alive to tell us the truth. His sisters say this story never took place.

Ben in OaklandMay 11, 2012 at 5:18 pm -

But his sisters weren’t there. The men who knew Romney WERE.

Hmm.

RainbowPhoenixMay 11, 2012 at 5:32 pm -

What do you think is more likely Jill, that Romney is lying/such a sociopath and did things like this so frequently that a single event really doesn’t stick out, or that five people who haven’t spoken to each other about the assault are lying?

This was the 1960s. Homosexuality was still officially classified as a mental disorder by the American Psychological Association. People who either came out as gay (which Lauber did after high school), were perceived as “effeminate” or otherwise did not conform to gender norms (which includes Lauber) were often isolated from their families and sometimes shunned completely. Look at this lady — it’s 2012, her brother has been dead for eight years, and she STILL can’t admit that he was gay. No, to her, he was just “unusual.” And you’re surprised that he didn’t tell his family, in that environment, about how he was gay-bashed by the governor’s son?

And furthermore — as someone who has worked with top-notch reporters at a major newspaper to break a major story (in my case, the New York Times), I can verify from firsthand experience that these people DO THEIR HOMEWORK, *especially* with stories of this magnitude. These stories aren’t released willy-nilly — that’s why they interviewed five witnesses to the attack and thoroughly vetted them before going public with this. Sorry, but the sister’s denial doesn’t amount to a hill of beans.

Regan DuCasseMay 11, 2012 at 5:56 pm -

For Elizabeth,
Regarding Obama’s admission of how he treated a co ed while intoxicated and why Romney’s behavior is WORSE.
1. Obama acted ALONE. Romney formed a gang that assaulted a boy for being gay.
2. Obama didn’t subsequent to his behavior, engage in anti woman political action.
3. Obama married a woman who is not only his educational, social and intellectual equal, she’s more his physical equal too. Michelle looks like she could break Obama’s neck if he crossed her the wrong way.
4. Obama has two beautiful, tall and potentially strong girls. As strong as his wife. He’s out numbered three to one.

5. Romney’s contempt for gay people has continued in the political arena. He’s donated to anti gay causes and is speaking at Liberty U, who has deans that made the SPLC list of anti gay hate groups.

I’m not defending the assault on a woman, but there has been nothing in Obama’s life since that shows him to be an indifferent sociopath willing to inflict socio/political pain on an entire of a vulnerable minority.

Romney’s assault was bad, but his denial/amnesia is much worse. It shows that he is either a liar or someone who bullying was so common he can’t remember which victim he harmed. Either scenario is alarming.

While the school mugging occurred a long time ago. His lie happened yesterday.

RonMay 11, 2012 at 7:33 pm -

People get a life. Something romney may have done in highschool is the best the libs have? I’m not a big fan of Romney. Ron Paul was my choice. Never the less he would be crucified by the media if he had won the nod. Why? Because he isnt a democrat. You people need to wake up. Stop eating what the media spoon feeds you.

Wayne BesenMay 11, 2012 at 7:40 pm -

Whatever Ron. You are such a phony. We pointed out that Romney is a liar by pretending he does not remember the event. Apparently, you are just as dishonest by not addressing this question. Contrary to your claim, you sound like a Romney shill. You workin for the campaign, pal?

AultonMay 11, 2012 at 9:02 pm -

Not our fault you conservatives (yes, even libertarians) have rather horrid skeletons in your closets that keep falling out.

Paul DouglasMay 12, 2012 at 1:33 am -

18 year olds can be dumb and stupid and cruel. I was (at 15). What is egregious is that at 50 something, this devout mormon cannot bring himself to admit he was wrong and a total jerk. Reminds me of a recent devout methodist President who would never admit he was wrong (and a total jerk). Its the denial, the lie of not remembering what others with him so clearly do remember, that makes him so disgusting. And a religious hypocrite as well.

BuffyMay 12, 2012 at 7:34 am -

Sure thing, Ron. The thing is you guys keep bleating about Family Values, Morality and stuff like that. Meanwhile we have Mittens here leading a gang assault on an innocent boy then lying about it–while giggling the whole time he’s being interviewed. That’s pretty sick and hypocritical stuff.

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